Nottinghamshire and England star Stuart Broad moves to top of world bowling rankings after South Africa win

Sports Reporter

Nottinghamshire CCC hero Stuart Broad has moved to the top of the world Test bowling rankings for the first time in his career.

This follows his sensational spell that propelled England to victory over South Africa in the Third Test at Johannesburg at the weekend, clinching a remarkable triumph in the series.

The 29-year-old Broad, who has been at Notts since 2008, took 6-17, including a burst of five wickets for one run at one stage, to help England take the series 2-0 with one Test still to play.

It followed the paceman’s similar spell to destroy Australia on the first morning of the Fourth Test in last summer’ Ashes series at Trent Bridge, when he returned career-best figures of 8-15, and duly lifted him to first place in the ICC rankings.

Broad’s 15th Test five-wicket haul was enough to see him gain 27 ranking points to take him nine points above Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. In third place in the rankings is South Africa’s Dale Steyn, while England teammate James Anderson sits in fifth spot.

Now England could finish the South Africa series with players on top of both the batting and bowling rankings because Joe Root’s century in the Third Test has shot him to second in the batting list, behind only Australia captain Steven Smith.

The next three batting slots are filled by New Zealand’s Jane Williamson, South Africa skipper AB de Villiers and Aussie opener David Warner.

The 6’6” Broad, son of ex-England batsman Chris Broad, has played in 90 Tests and 119 one-day internationals for England in a prolific career. In total, he has taken 330 Test wickets at an average of 28.54. With the bat, he’s also scored 2,558 Test runs at an average of 23.25.